Third Apple TV Unveiled

Apple has officially announced the third iteration of the Apple TV set-top box. It now supports Full HD 1080p video, unlike its predecessor.

The Apple TV features a slick new interface but it’s not, as some hoped, a version of iOS that’ll let you play games and fire-up iPhone apps from the App Store. The look, however, will be familiar to iOS device users, and the new Apple TV does support third-party apps made for the device.This is the second-gen version, but they look pretty darn similar

Apple TV is fully connected to iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage solution, which now supports movies. The neat software will suggest movies based on what you’ve watched in the past and – like the previous-gen model – it’s all based on streaming rather than local storage of video files. The cloud is where it’s at, if you haven’t noticed already. Other than watching films, the Apple TV will also act as a neat photo playback device, dragging them out of iCloud.

The new Apple TV costs the same as its predecessor, $99 in the US and – most likely – £99 here. It’ll be available to buy from next week, on 16 March. It’s not quite as exciting as the iPad 3, but plugs-in some of the holes of its predecessor. What do you think? Not enough of a revolution, or a sensible upgrade?